The present invention relates to surgical drapes and the like.
Surgical drapes are used during surgical procedures, in part, to provide a sterile field about the surgical site and during other treatment procedures requiring the maintenance of a sterile environment. When used during surgery, drapes prevent blood and other bodily fluids from cross contaminating the sterile field.
Various types of surgical drapes have been used to keep a surgical site on a patient sterile during a surgical procedure. Traditionally, surgical drapes were linen or woven cloth, and were sterilized after each use for reuse. More recently, disposable drapes have been introduced, in which nonwoven paper or fabric forms a substantial part of the drape. A reinforcement area is often placed around a fenestration opening or edge in disposable surgical drapes to provide structural strength and to absorb bodily fluids from a surgical site. Many disposable drapes include a number of layers of different materials for the drape area and reinforcement area, with each layer providing a different property to the drape. For example, spunbond fabrics, meltblown fabrics, and polymer films have been used as layers in disposable drapes.
Many different shapes of surgical drapes have been proposed, often depending upon the specific surgical procedure to be performed. For example, the shape of the drape was often specifically designed to fit around a specific surgical site on the body. In some cases, a fenestration opening was provided through a drape to allow medical personnel access to the surgical site, whereas the remaining sheet portion of the drape would cover the rest of the body and table. Often, several drapes were used in combination to cover a patient. In some cases, several rectangular drapes, often called universal drapes, were laid over the patient in a pattern providing an opening through which the medical personnel could access the surgical site while also covering the remainder of the patient""s body and the table.
Packaging of the drapes requires that the drape be folded numerous times. The drapes upon removal from the packaging are creased at those areas corresponding to the fold lines. The creases have a tendency to cause the drape to remain partially folded even when the drape is placed over a patient. Direct manipulation of the drape is often required to completely unfold the drape. This is especially the case the closer the crease comes to an edge of the drape. A better method is needed to assist in unfolding the drape.
As such, one aspect of the present invention discloses a nonwoven surgical drape made of a non-cellulose containing base sheet including a top edge, a bottom edge, at least two side edges, and a source of additional weight uniformly distributed along the side edges. The source of additional weight may have a mass per unit length between about three times and about eight times the basis weight of the base sheet. In some embodiments the source is within about 2 cm to about 5 cm of each side edge. In other embodiments the source is within about 0.8 cm of each side edge. In still other embodiments the source is within about 0.8 cm to about 2 cm of each side edge. Some embodiments utilize a source of additional weight that is uniformly divided along each side edge. Other embodiments utilize a flexible material adjoined to each side edge as an added source of weight. The source of additional weight may include a bead of hot melt adhesive, a flexible filled-polymer band, and/or a nonabsorbent material.